Exam Paper Revision

Write an essay based on the following exam question

Section B: Institutions and Audiences

Answer the question below, making detailed reference to examples from your case study material to support the points made in your answer.

2 “Successful media products depend as much upon marketing and distribution to a specific audience as they do upon good production practices.” To what extent would you agree with this statement, within the media area you have studied?

TIPS:  YOU ARE MARKED ON YOUR use of examples [20], your ability use explanation, analysis and argument [20]  your ability to use media terminology

You will need to reference theorists in the preparation of your essay


This essay will discuss how much media products depend on marketing and distribution to a specific audience and other factors that can include what makes a successful media product. I will finally  how far I agree with this. 

Marketing is the promotion or selling of a product or service and the distribution of the film are responsible for the marketing of the film. Factors that include marketing are video promotions, ancillary products and 

Technology

Film vs. Digital

It is cheaper to work with film since it is better looking. However, digital format with lightweight cameras like the Red One is affordable. 

Film such as Ride Along 2, Martian and Straight Outta Compton

Over time, there has been a decline in UK cinema attendance:

As time passed post world war 2, the population of the UK purchased television. This then saw a massive decline at its lowest during 1985.

How we consume film:

Technologies such as Piracy, DVD & BLU-ray, Secondary viewing platforms and Netflix also affect the decline in UK cinema audience.

Piracy is the unauthorised duplication of copyrighted content that is then sold at substantially lower prices in the 'grey' market.

The effects of Piracy

30% of the UK population is active in some form of piracy, either through streaming content online or buying counterfeit DVDs.

This costs the UK audiovisual industries about £500m a year.

cinemas are losing about £220m a year at the UK box office due to piracy

It affects Independents more than the Big 6

How is the industry is responding to the threat of piracy?

Phase out of DVD and Blu ray

Infra – red film technology

Educating consumers

Offering film content for free with advertisements (Spotify)

Selling downloadable film via e.g. (Apple, via ITunes Store)

internet streamed but legally bought films

This latter option will require superior (secure)  technology and online infrastruture

Sky developing a household hub computer/T.V

Star Wars: The Force Awakens Case Study

 Production: (Making Film) inception; optioning; writing the script; pitching to a studio; setting a budget; crewing up; casting; filming; editing. The studio buys the rights; the studio makes a licensing agreement with a distribution company.

Distribution: (The Middle Man) A film distributor is responsible for the marketing of a film. they decide how many copies of the film are made; they negotiate deals to sell the lease to buyers.

Exhibition: (The Screen) how the film reaches the public; cinemas; DVDs; online; TV. 

The original trilogy for Star Wars had very well known stars in the film such as Mark Hammil, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher which brought about profit since many people would be interested in watching these actors. 

Star Wars VII would attract a very large age range of audience. It could attract a younger audience since they could be keen on watching films that include special effects with futuristic weapons. It could also attract an older audience since they could have had an interest in the original trilogy which came out in the 1970s. For the Star Wars franchise to be revived would attract this older audience. 

Distribution: Individual distributors may release any number of films, sometimes just one or two, or as many as 25-30 a year.

A typical week sees around ten new films opening in UK cinemas. Inevitably, with more than 500 releases a year all competing for screen time, media space and audience interest, the market place is highly competitive, churning, chopping and changing all too quickly.

Social Networking:

There wear also 2 different trailers that were released in YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGbxmsDFVnE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMOVFvcNfvE



Marketing: 

Star Wars was focused on: 

These were the main promotional events that made Star Wars VII well known

ABC news and ESPN sports promoted the 7th Star Wars film since they are all together as a synergy. This brought about a vast audience to Star Wars VII since the film was mentioned 449 time on ABC and 83 times on ESPN. This would convince the channels audience to watch the film since its 'hyped up' from the many times it has been mentioned.

Merchandising:

Ancillary products such as action figures and games were created to further maximise profits for 

star wars franchise.

£32 billion was made altogether with all merchandise.

Games such as Star Wars: Battlefront 3 

5 percent of the audience was between the ages of 13 and 17

Tickets were primarily purchased by men between 18-49 with an average age of 34.

cross-generational appeal, with audiences split nearly even between over and under 25 years old. The Force Awakens in the U.S. is male, or 70 percent of it

Another product that relates t §1

Audiences and Institutions Part 2

Sequel - The next film that is in chronological order.

Mega franchise - A franchise is a collection of related media in which several derivative works have been produced from an original creative work

Blockbuster - a thing of great power or size, in particular a film, book, or other product that is a great commercial success

Synergy - is the term used to describe a situation where different businesses cooperate 

advantageously for a final outcome such as a film

Cross Media Ownership is the ownership of multiple media businesses by a person or corporation. These businesses can include broadcast and cable television, film, radio, newspaper, magazine, book publishing, music, video games, and various online entities.

A conglomerate is a large company composed of a number of smaller companies (subsidiaries) engaged in seemingly unrelated businesses.

A media conglomerate is a company that owns large numbers of companies in various mass media such as television, radio, publishing, movies, and the Internet.

Synergy is when the interaction of two or more forces working together creates a greater effect than the sum of their individual effort.

Media synergy is the way in which different elements of a media conglomerate work together to promote linked products across different media.

The Walt Disney Company  is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Since its founding in 1923.  The company comprises:

The Walt Disney Studios

Parks and Resort

Disney Consumer Products

Disney Media Networks:

Horizontal integration: Walt Disney owns many studio entertainment, consumer product companies, and media networks.

Vertical integration:  Walt Disney plans, produces, advertises, and distributes all of its products on its own.

vertical integration is an arrangement in which the supply chain of a company is owned by that company.

Horizontal integration is the process of a company increasing production of goods or services at the same part of the supply chain

Another example of a production company that Disney own would be Lucasfilm.

Theme parks would be Disneyland Paris and would have attractions linked to their production such as Star Tours.

Hollywood switched to the continuation of mega franchise movies since they can bring about more profit by restarting the production of very well known franchises such as Star Wars. 

Mega franchise movies are defined by their popularity. If the franchise is very well known and would have various films included, it would be known as a mega franchise. 

I believe that sequels are important to Hollywood films since they can bring about more profit by bringing out more films since there would be a continuation of the story line.

Ancillary Revenue' Revenue is generated from goods or services that differ from or enhance the main services or product lines of a company. This is important because it would bring about extra profit.

Hollywood has moved from vertical integration to horizontal integration.

Because of this they now focus on producing films which can cross-promoted with other media texts.

Ancillary revenue has now become more important than box office revenue.

Ancillary revenue: (definition)  Revenue that is derived from goods or services other than a company's primary product offering (e.g. toys, other merchandise, video games, books, etc)

Attractions that are influenced by Jurassic Park would be:

Other derivative works could include: Games

Star Wars:

Star Wars Battlefront, Clothes, Models

Shrek:

Musical, Games, Clothes (one piece ogre set)

Indiana Jones:

4 films, A comic book series, Novels, Clothing

Media convergence

The combining of two or more mediums. Different mediums are TV / film / computer graphics / radio/ website etc

Media convergence in the film industry can happen in production, distribution or exhibition.

It happens when the music industry comes together with the film industry when Adele releases the new single for Skyfall.

Ill Manors

Budget: 100,000 GBP

Genre: Drama, Crime Fiction

Target Audience: Mature audiences with the age range of 18 years old and above

Producer:  BBC Films

Distributor: BBC Films

Box office returns:UK total of $714,441

BBC Films have also  produced and distributed films such as Fish Tank and Paddington Bear.

BBC films helped  finance the film to a budget of £100,00 which is considered very low compared to a film produced in the USA.

Advantages of being independent:

1. Art and Niche based films
2. Small budget
3. More profit
4. Less editing/sound effects

Disadvantages of begin independent:

1. Restricts potential audience
2. Travel to better locations
3. Will be able to take risks when making films

Marketing:

Plan B

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8GvLKTsTuI

Ill manors is a film written and directed by singer Plan B.

He used this as an essential marketing tool alongside his album, he did this by basing his music and film around the same themes.

Plan B links the film with his music by the film focusing on eight core characters, and their circles of violence as they struggle to survive on the streets, each story links with one another and each story can be represented by one of his rap songs

The production company that worked alongside Plan B to create this was BBC Films, a large British production company who have also produced films such as 'Streetdance 3', 'An Education' and 'Fish Tank'.

BBC films helped  finance the film to a budget of £100,00 which is considered very low compared to a film produced in the USA.

TV and Radio

This film was also marketed by reaching the audiences of Tv an radio. I was payed to be mentioned on BBC Radio Extra. It was also paid to be advertised on the television channel E4 at peak times. 

Synopsis:

A unique crime thriller set on the unforgiving streets of London, iLL MANORS follows six disparate lives, all struggling to survive the circles of violence that engulf them. There is ex-dealer Kirby, who has just been released from prison, thug Ed who will stop at nothing to find his missing phone, troubled Michelle who is just looking for her next hit, young Jake who finds himself drawn to the local gang, Chris, who seeks revenge, Katya, who is desperately trying to escape this foreign land, and Aaron, our main protagonist who is just trying to do the right thing.

Distribution: 

iLL Manors got a relatively wide release from the independent distributor Revolver (which had its first big success with Kidulthood – the film which helped to begin the current „urban film‟ cycle).

The initial release was successful with over £250,000 taken during the first weekend from 191 cinemas,

But in Week 2 the number of cinemas fell to 83 and the screen average fell by 65% Skyfall’s cinemas didn’t fall; nearly as dramatically.

This is very telling and could be read in several ways. Revolver may have concluded that an initial release to capitalise on the strong profile of Plan B would need to go wide first but that most of the audience would get to see it via DVD and online later. But it also looks like word of mouth was not strong.

Target Audience:

Drew has said that his focus was the 15-25 age group.

BUT - In that sense he has done the film no favours the BBFC classified its as ‟18” certificate

This was due to the bad language, drug scenes and extreme violence.

It must have lost under 18 audiences because of this.

Ill manors was promoted through Plan Bs Ill Manors album.

Social media was important to the marketing of Ill Manors because it was promoted on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Their Facebook page raised 31, 569 likes before the release. The film also had its own hashtag on Instagram and Twitter. This also made the film gain even more recognition. 

Microwave Films:

 

Film London is the capital's screen industries agency.

We connect ideas, talent and finance to develop a pioneering creative culture in the city that delivers success in film, television, animation, games and beyond.

We work to sustain, promote and develop London as a global content production hub, support the development of the city's new and emerging filmmaking talent and invest in a diverse and rich film culture.

We aim to ensure the capital is a thriving centre for creative industries sector that enrich the city's businesses and its people.

What we do

From encouraging inward investment to training emerging filmmakers, funding film exhibitors to inspiring film-lovers - we support film in London every step of the way.

Talent development and production

Our talent development and production team support new and emerging filmmakers in London through funding, training and mentoring.

Our schemes include the prestigious London Calling and London Calling Plus short film schemes, the feature funding scheme Microwave, and training, financing and distribution schemes and events including Micro Market, Market Place Live and Build Your Audience.